News & Views in 2012

The endocochlear potential in a guinea pig's ear is captured and used to run a low-power radio.

An influenza vaccine made of stabilized mRNA may allow vaccine design and manufacture to keep pace with viral evolution.

Two studies find that programmable RNA-processing tools counter the problem of context-dependence in the construction of synthetic biology circuits.

An important goal of future omics research is to determine how the annotated regions of the genome control the production of protein isoforms.

Large-scale functional genomics data coupled with whole-genome sequencing will lead to improved diagnostic assays.

A new probe identifies cell-surface receptors bound by known ligands.

Metagenomics reveals the identities of the microorganisms that make up the endophytic and rhizosphere microbiomes of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Transplanting donor cells into lymph nodes regenerates liver, pancreas and thymus function in mice.

New mechanistic insight into the regulation of WNT signaling supports efforts to target this pathway in adult stem cells for regenerative medicine.

Diverse mathematical models combine to create a comprehensive whole-cell computational model of a human pathogen.

Genome engineering has a new tool—endonucleases involved in bacterial adaptive immunity that can be reprogrammed with customizable small, noncoding RNAs.

Stretching DNA molecules in nanochannels allows structural and copy-number variations to be visualized like beads on a string.

Sequencing of the tomato genome reveals key events in the evolution of fruit size, texture, flavor and nutritional quality.

A method for performing RNA-Seq on picograms of mRNA facilitates gene expression profiling of rare cells.

Oligonucleotides with unnatural sugar backbones that can be replicated in vitro may open up new avenues for synthetic biology and beyond.

Calculating absolute copy numbers in cancer genome sequences identifies disease-associated genes and provides insights into tumor evolution and heterogeneity.